Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Twins Caravan comes to town

Ron Gardenhire and Brian Dozier sign autographsMonday evening at the Kato Ballroom. (Photo by John Cross)

Despite the cold snap, winter's time IS passing. One of the signs is that the Twins Caravan has begun -- two weeks of team representatives wandering Minnesota and neighboring states drumming up interest in the summer game (and exposing young players, many of them from milder climes, to the frozen North). This activity is capped off by Twins Fest, and then comes the migration to Fort Myers and spring training, now officially less than a month away.

Day One of the Caravan ended in Mankato. As usual, I was trapped in the office and couldn't go; Jim Rueda, the Free Press sports editor, handled the coverage.

The Caravan is rooted, of course, in promoting ticket sales and interest in the team. I would think that's a bit tougher this winter than it has been in a while. After almost a decade as the top team in the AL Central, the Twins have lost 195 games the past two seasons, and expecting a rapid turnaround seems unrealistic.

So the organization is trying to peddle hope while avoiding promises it can't keep.

1 comment:

Aw, too bad you were tied up at the FP, Ed. I was hoping to pick you out of the crowd and finally meet you! We had a pretty good time; not as good as when Killer and Tony-O used to come to town, and Kirby and Hrby and so on. But "Gardy & Co." kept it pretty entertaining. I did think the crowd was down a bit; didn't know if it was just because of the weather, the poor seasons they had the last two years, or the fact we didn't get any big "stars" this time, with the exception of Gardy.